Posts Tagged ‘Marion Ross Ph.D’

I have been blessed to be able to be on the first flight from France to the US after the volcanic eruption.
It was not an easy task to return. I was quick thinking, flexible and willing to go the long way home. Here are some tips I will suggest to folks that are stuck in their travels:

1. Be flexible. Think out of the box and consider options you never would have considered before. You may have to drive, take a boat or a train to another destination to get home.

2. Don’t believe what you read or hear from the press. Get your information first hand from the source.

3. Know where you are in relationship to major cities and surrounding countries, so you can plan effectively.

4. Travel light, only what you can comfortable carry .

5. Maintain a sense of humor and count your blessings. Keep your awareness and attitude on the positive side.

6. Stay calm and even tempered with transportation providers. You will have better results, especially with airline personnel.

7. Speak to fellow travelers and others who might be able to assist you. Don’t be shy to ask or embarrassed to ask because you don’t have all the answers.

8. Be prepared to shift your plans quickly.

9. Don’t be a sheep in the crowd. Stay alert to hear and on the internet to see changing situations and updates as they happen.

Living an Awakened Life:An interview with Patrick Ryan, author of Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance

We are very excited to be the first stop of the virtual blog tour for Patrick Ryan’s upcoming book, Awakened Wisdom: A Guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance, to be launched on April 20th.
Following is a special interview with Patrick, whom I am grateful to for taking the time to indulge in our questions.Marion: What does it mean to live an awakened life?Patrick: Living an awakened life can look very different for each person. In its simplest form it asks us to be discerning in the choices we make and responsible for the impact of those choices. This starts from what food we choose to put into our bodies and goes right on through to bigger decisions that affect our relationships and careers.
Let’s break it down some. We have three important considerations to put attention to if we are to live an awakened life. They are the state of our heart, which includes emotions and relationships, our mind, which includes what we put our attention on including our thoughts and words, and our body, which includes taking care of our body as well as the physical things that we create in our lives such as our home.
We are making choices in every moment related to these three aspects of our being. We must be very aware of what it is we are choosing. So much of what we do is through habit. Habits become areas of unconsciousness because we stop thinking and we just do our habit.
One good practice is to notice your habits, even the one’s that seem so basic, and to ask your Self, “What other choice do you have other than the habitual one?” You might be surprised at how much your life can change from changing a few basic habits. That would be a good step forward in living an awakened life.Marion: What is your personal story? How did you end up as a Buddhist monk in Burma?Patrick: Before I became a Buddhist monk in Burma, I had never thought about Burma, I had never seen or been around any monk, and I certainly had no idea that I was embarking on such a path. The full story is in my first book, The Eagles’s Call. Here is the short version.
I had a very successful business as a real estate broker. It was the kind of business that most realtors dream of and very few ever achieve. I have been an entrepreneur all my life and creating small business’s to me is second nature.
One day I woke up and realized that I wanted to go off on a great adventure. I decided to put myself 100% into that adventure and so I gave away almost everything I owned and bought a one-way ticket to south-east Asia. I made a promise to my Self and to the Universe that I would follow the bouncing ball of intuition, guidance, and the direction of the wind.
That eventually led me to a monastery in Burma where I arrived unannounced. I expected to stay for a few days and then move on but as soon as I arrived, this magical series of events started happening that resulted in me becoming a Buddhist monk and then going off on a profound journey of discovery that was most unusual even by the standards of monks.
Though I thought that the entire trip would likely only last about six weeks I was on the road for eighteen months at that time. That took me through Burma, Nepal and India. During that time I received initiations and other blessings that continue to reveal themselves to me to this very day.Marion: In your book you suggest that there are eight states of an awakened life. Could you briefly describe them?Patrick: Sure. In brief, here they are.
A Good State of Intention – This is the causal level of what we are creating in our lives. We are in this amazing dance with the Universe and each of us is such a powerful creator of our life and the world we are in. Most of us are unconscious about what we are really asking for and creating.
A Good State of Words – This is the power that our words have on what happens on our life. Every word we speak is like a spell of creation. Every word goes out, is heard, and the world responds according to our speaking.
A Good State of Being – In a Good State of Being we must consider the state of all our relationships. That begins with our relationship to our Self, our loved ones, our careers and on and on. We created the quality of all or these relationships and we must be responsible to them.
A Good State of Purpose – Now we are considering the purpose that we are living into during this life. Imagine that every one of us is playing a part in what is going on every day on this planet. We each have a part to play and it helps to know more about that and the impact that we are having.
A Good State of Effort – Each day we go around doing things. In this state we consider the quality of the experience that we are creating and the amount of effort that we are putting in. This is the balance between trying too hard or not hard enough.
A Good State of Practice – We all benefit from having good practices in our life that take care of our mind, body, heart, and associated things. We are well advised to create practices that provide for our well being and care.
A Good State of Doing – As humans we got to go out a do a lot of stuff. The quality of the experience while we do what we do and the act of choosing well with regards to the actions that we take is important to consider.
A Good State of Understanding – Here we take a look at what are the operating principles of the Universe that we all live in. Everybody would benefit from taking a look at what their beliefs and experience are regarding these principles.
In the book Awakened Wisdom: A guide to reclaiming Your Brilliance, I go through all eight of these states and share a lot of ideas about what I have found to be so.Marion: Why is your new book so important right now?Patrick: This is a very interesting time on the planet. As things change with the rapid pace that they are, we all have to be clear about how to navigate forward in a good way. This book will show people some very important ways to navigate according to your own wisdom. We have got to stop following the crowd and think and feel things through according to our own wisdom rather than what the media would have us do.Marion: Your website is http://www.AwakenedWisdom.com What will we find there? Why would I want to go to it?Patrick: Awakened Wisdom Experiences is a growing repository of collected ideas and wisdom from a variety of sources. I am going to keep it current and vibrant and I would like it to be source of great ideas and suggestions for you so that you can learn more about living your own great awakened life.
Check out my latest book, Awakened Wisdom: A guide to Reclaiming Your Brilliance. http://ow.ly/1kB3m I am sure that you will find it to be a great resource that will support you in living your life to the fullest extent possible.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to share these ideas.

Patrick, It’s a pleasure to have you blogging with us. Thanks for sharing!

Patrick’s Blog tour continues tomorrow with Schall Adams at http://www.mygirlfriendmentors.com/blog There, Patrick will share how to use the Eight States of Awakened Life to move from a distorted way of being, into a state of “Divine Essence”.

How can you create a life well-lived? Get Patrick’s new book on April 20th and find out. To receive updates in regards to the official Amazon book launch on April 20th, please visit http://ow.ly/1kB3m

Creating Discipline for Sport Performance
Whether you are a serious athlete or a weekend warrior these tips are helpful to increase focus and help you perform to the best of your capabilities.

Create discipline through centering:

1. Four rounds of Rhythmic breathing can help both lower your blood pressure and bring you to a state of calm before you begin play or whenever you feel overwhelmed, anxious or stressed during the game.
Think of your breathing pattern as if it were a box or square drawn on a piece of paper with the breathing in being the left upward drawn line, holding your in-breath as the line on the top of the square from left to right, breathing out as the line going downward on the right side, and then the holding of the out-breath being the line from right to left on the bottom side of the square.

You slowly count the length of your breath going in, being held, or going out that is right for you. The length of your in-breath and out-breath should be the same count; just as the length of the held breath at top and bottom should be the same number of counts. As you practice your breathing, you might find that your square is actually a rectangle. Each person may find they have a different count from another person; and that is fine as we are all unique individuals. Just make certain that you are not strained in your breathing in or out or with the breath holds at top or bottom; if you find you are strained, then change the length of your counts for different sides of your box of breathing.
Once you find the pattern of your square or rectangular box that works best for you, go through 4 to 5 complete rounds of the rhythmic breathing and notice how your body and mind respond.

2. A daily practice of meditation, yoga or a martial art has long been recognized for increasing focus including Tai Chi and Chi Gong.

3. Light a candle, focus on the the tip of the flame and be mindfully aware of what you see, sense or feel as you look into it and with a continuous stream of expression say out loud whatever it is that you see. As soon as you pause or repeat yourself you must to start over. Try to work up to a continuous expression of what you see for 2 minutes . Use a timer or do this exercise with a partner. This may seem like a silly exercise but it helps create intense focus and concentration .

4. Use a Sport Link or a similar focus trainer. Use the program for sports performance for 20 minutes a day or before you run. This is a great tool which has improved the game of many a pro and Olympic athlete in all fields.

5. Visualization of your goal. See yourself reaching your goal and feeling wonderful about it and with 2 fingers gently tap this vision into your 3rd eye ( between the eyebrows) a few times a day and before you compete. This only works if you are free from the killer issues that are blocking you – see next technique.

6. EFT tapping on your acupoints for lack of discipline, nervousness, anxiety, muscle tension, fear or failure or whatever your issue.
This tool is used to prepare yourself ahead of time and to use whether you are competing or just interested in adding more pleasure and satisfaction to your game. This will relieve the stressors and problems you have identified which are inhibiting you from maximum performance. See our book Shift:12 Keys to Shift Your Life for a more in depth explanation of the technique.
We have both had enormous success using EFT with patients. I often use it both for my own golf game and when I am coaching on the golf course. For more information on EFT, opt in to our website at www.12keystoshift.com and you can view our EFT demo video.

Here is a great example of how the brain reinvents itself and how it can be trained. We hope that it serves to reinforce the message that we are the creators in our lives, when we choose our path and focus our resources.

This can give you some insight as to why the EFT ( Emotional Freedom Technique), meditation, and other mind body medicine techniques work to create new pathways of neural connections.